Hey, wouldn't it be nice if someone gathered all public media coverage of this year's election and put it in one place on the Internet?
Someone has.
PBS Vote 2008, a site that draws news stories, video, online tools and user comments from public television and public radio sites across the nation, launched yesterday.
"There are tons of places online to get breaking news, but it can be hard to find context and analysis. This site provides all of PBS's in-depth reporting in one place," says Laura Hertzfeld, content manager for PBS Vote 2008.
Today the site features links to "NewsHour" correspondent Gwen Ifill's exclusive interview with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, an "Election Connection" blog entry on the role of public television's minority reporters at this year's political conventions and links to such sites as the "American Experience" presidential page.
The site's coolest feature: a selection of social media widgets, including "Get My Vote," an NPR-produced site that allows citizens to express their political beliefs; "Budget Hero," an interactive game that lets you choose how tax dollars are spent, and "You Decide," that puts your opinions on hot-button issues like gay marriage to the test.
"A lot of bloggers like to think of themselves as reporters, so they can embed these tools on their sites and draw upon public broadcasting's reporting," Laura says.
PBS Vote 2008 is also the home of the nifty interactive election map, a joint production from PBS and NPR that, in our biased opinion, puts John King's much-hyped CNN toy to shame.
You'll also find a roundup of comments filed at PBS sites, such as this gem from Alexandra, a commenter at the "Bill Moyers Journal" blog: "Having detailed information, debates and countless other forms of information to me embodies what democracy is about: governance by the people."
Drop by the site and check it out for yourselves, then feel free to come back here and share your thoughts on PBS Vote 2008 in our comments section. We're eager to hear from you.
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Happy Change!
So glad that PBS is finally getting the ball rolling on entering into the 2008 foray in a major way. I'll be checking back often, and Moyer's blog looks great. Anything added to the national discussion is appreciated, especially from a patently public forum. For other PBS'ers, if you follow the political scene closely you might want to check out the comedy site 23/6.com , since it follows the news closely, and provides a different take as well as some other useful blog trackbacks. Check it out: www.236.com
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